Balancing HR and Humanity

Twenty years ago after creating the new employee “Service Camp” for the Coeur d’Alene Resort I was given the opportunity to move from operations to HR.  I loved the possibilities but hated the realities.  Too much time limiting liabilities and very little growing resources.  (Oh, and I also hated the little office in the back hall.)   In the nearly two decades since, I find that for many (not all), little has changed.

There are still far too many resources devoted to protection and not nearly enough time promoting perfection.

HR needs more than new directives – it needs a new design.  A design unconfined by position but redesigned for fruition.

If you don’t appreciate that last line you need to read everything by Daniel Pink, including his last book which should be required reading for anyone who “moves” people (which is everyone), To Sell is Human.    I love Dan’s writing because he backs it up with research.   One of the things research shows is that rhythm matters.  Not just on the dance floor but in meaning more.

Rhyme makes it easier for our brains to process information and ease creates attraction.  We tend to like, remember and agree with information we can easily access and remember.

If you are nerdy enough (as I am) to want to read the research you should pick up Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow.

It is a mind numbing monster requiring more than 21 hours just to listen to, but the “facts” about our decision process will make you rethink everything you’ve ever thought.

You will find that people are far more capable and vastly more considerate than you ever imagined. Allow peers to police peers. The problem is not with the people it is with the pyramid.

The entrepreneurial ideas that energize engagement are crushed under the obesity of excessive oversight.

Back to Fruition:  attainment of anything desired; realization; accomplishment

It is time for humanity to reap the rewards that the profession of human resources is positioned to provide.  This does not mean that HR suddenly becomes the center of the attentional universe.  We don’t need another oracle for answers.